Darrell Dexter And The NDP Chose To Lie And Not To Deliver On Campaign Promises

Let me start by saying that I think that the facts are clear in this election in Nova Scotia and Cape Breton; Darrell Dexter and the NDP chose to lie and not deliver on campaign promises. They were in a majority position and can not blame their failings on the opposition parties. I think instead of slinging political mud at the provincial Liberal Party that has not been in power in 14 years, he and the NDP should try explaining themselves, their obvious lies, or their obvious incompetence and bad judgement.

There used to be a time in Canada that leaders of political parties spoke of their achievements and the advancements that they made during their time in power more than the short comings of their rivals, because it was their party that got all the credit for the good things that benefited the people in the country, their province, or city, while they were running things. The leaders of political parties tended to promote their parties plans for the future and point out with their positive accomplishment that they were the party to be trusted to do what was best because they had delivered on all or most of their promises from the last election. Of course they would point out the things that did not pass, because they were in a minority government and exactly which opposition party or parties voted down what they thought to be good things for Canadians that they had promised to deliver. Rarely did the incumbent in an election they called coming out of a majority government feel the need to sling the political mud, especially at a political party that had not been in power in 14 years, but alas this seems to be the approach that incumbent Darrell Dexter has started his campaign for re-election with.

Is it that his government has nothing to brag about and the fact that his government has been so out of touch with the people and the province of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton and done so little for them with his majority government that all there is left to do is mud sling and hope to evoke a spectre of a government from 14 years ago? The only problem with being in power with a majority government is that you can not fall back and blame others for your inability to get the job done, because it is your political party that is holding all of the cards. It is your party that gets the credit for all of the good that the country, province, or city is experiencing and for all of the bad. Darrel Dexter has started down the slippery slope of blaming the Liberal Party of Nova Scotia that has not been in power for 14 years for all of the woes that are afflicting rural Nova Scotia today, or is it because Stephen McNeil‘s Liberal Party of Nova Scotia is 10 percentage points ahead in the polls, because of the way this government has not come through for the people, could not come through for the people, because they intentionally misled the people in their campaign, by over simplifying what it would take to get the job done; kind of like a contractor under bidding to get a contract and then once they have got it demanding more money, more time, more manpower, because they are not able to deliver. They usually try to claim hidden factors, or unforeseen costs, but even if this is true it usually means that the bidder was incompetent and did not do adequate investigation of the facts, causing their lack of understanding of the situation and the costing of the job. So there you have it Darrell Dexter and his NDP government either lied to the people of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, or was incompetent from the start of the campaign. I think they were dishonest and that their dishonesty cost the honest politician to lose the election and the people of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton their right to vote for honesty and good government. We live in a society that punishes fraudsters when they are fond out so why should politicians the ilk of Darrell Dexter and his NDP government get away with it.

Darrell Dexter and his NDP government used their power as a majority government to:

Nov. 13, 2009: Break a series of election promises by cutting spending, raising income taxes, increasing the harmonized sales tax by two percentage points and delaying a promise to balance the books in the 2010-11 budget until 2012.

June 15, 2012: Resolute Forest Products closes the former Bowater Mersey paper mill in Brooklyn, throwing 320 people out of work about six months after the province announced a $25-million forgivable loan to the company and bought woodland from Resolute for $23.75 million.

Sept. 22, 2012: The government reaches a deal to get the shuttered New Page Port Hawkesbury paper mill operating by signing a $124.5-million aid package in addition to $36.8 million it spent to keep the mill ready to restart.

May 9, 2013: Percy Paris resigns as minister of economic and rural development after he is charged with assault and uttering threats following an alleged scuffle with a Liberal member of the legislature.

This means that while Darrell Dexter and his NDP Party of Nova Scotia gave monies to big business, he balanced his budget by adding to the hardships of everyday Nova Scotians and Cape Bretoners by raising the harmonized sales tax. Individual citizens of Canada do not mind shouldering their share of the tax burden and generally do not complain when ask to shoulder a little more than their share, but they do tend to draw a line in the sand at paying big business’s share of that burden while the government throws money at them. With this kind of leadership and governance from Darrell Dexter and his NDP Party it is small wonder that he must resort to mud-slinging even though he was operating with a majority government. The cherry on top of the proverbial cake is that the NDP led by Darrell Dexter will not fulfill the campaign promise to balance the budget which the opposition parties will rightfully point out makes them poor economic planners.

Failing to keep your election promises should never be acceptable, but is less frowned upon and seems more palatable by some voters if it is from a minority government; who can and always do blame their inability to deliver campaign promises on the opposition parties lack of cooperation and the will of the voters for not voting their party in with a majority government. Deciding to just put aside your campaign promises after the voters give you a majority government the way Darrell Dexter and the NDP did it in Nova Scotia is political suicide, because there is no real justification for it.

The economy did not suddenly take a nose dive, the stock market did not crash and the things that he claimed he just had to do to help Nova Scotia and Cape Breton like raising their taxes were there during the campaign, so why were they not part of the his/NDP’s campaign platform as what it would take to get nova Scotia and Cape Breton back on track?

The problems concerning Resolute Forest Products and New Page Port Hawkesbury paper mill did not suddenly appear over night so if it was Darrell Dexter and the NDP’s intention all along to help these companies as a way of keep jobs and helping the economy by giving them millions of dollars of taxpayer tax money then why did he and the NDP put it in the campaign platform.

I would suggest the Darrell Dexter and the NDP knew the facts going into the election and chose to tell the people what they wanted to hear and paint a pretty picture to steal votes from the other politicians misleading the voter on his party’s intentions. This to me just wrong and usually leads the negative way that voters feel about politicians in general. Pulling this kind of stunt on the voters from who you sought and received their trust is shameful; expecting to get away with it as far as voter support is concerned, is just stupid. I think that it is time for Canadian politicians to get back to doing what they promise to do and stop making promises to the people they represent that they know that are impossible to keep. I think that Darrell Dexter and his party need to go and I think that politicians of his ilk that are caught in obvious lies in their campaign promises should be forced from office by a mechanism set up in the election rule and laws.